Current Exhibition

In February 2009, Berlin-based artist Nicolas Moulin began a 3-month residency at the University of Sheffield. Shortlisted for this year’s prestigious Prix Marcel Duchamp, Site Gallery will be showing his first UK solo exhibition.

Moulin works in video, photography, sculpture and sound. He is fascinated by strange worlds, be they vast, deserted landscapes of his Novomond series or his disturbing VIDERPARIS, large-scale photographs of apparently familiar Paris streets, where the facades have been concreted over to a height of several metres.

His current interest in the built environment and the way people are conditioned and manipulated by the buildings and spaces that surround them will form thebasis of his exhibition at the gallery. In the artist's words, ‘The city fascinates me as a way of living…a building is a utilarian sculpture, it’s a 3D image of mythology’.

Commissioned by Site Gallery, the neon structure, Blanklümderlicht and large photo installation, Wenluderwind, will be complemented by Moulin’s earlier video Nachdatch, a disorientating computer generated projection showing the darkened interior of a blockhaus or bunker, perforated by shafts of constantly shifting light and shadow. With references to Sheffield’s cityscape, the raw and uncompromising Beton Brut or brutalist style, epitomized by Park Hill flats, the Moore Street sub-station and the concrete overpasses and underpasses that link and divide the city, Moulin creates an imagined landscape for the 21st century.

More on Nicolas Moulin:
Born in France in 1970, Nicolas Moulin now lives and works in Berlin. Recently nominated for the prestigious Prix Marcel Duchamp, Moulin’s recent solo exhibitions include Dividencke, Galerie RLBQ, Marseille (2009), Dämmeryugyonngbleibt, La BF15, Lyon (2008) and Etametastabl, C/O Berlin - International Forum for Visual Dialogues, Berlin (2006). Group exhibitions include Entre – temps, MIS-the Museum of Image and Sound, Sao Paulo (2009), Utopia / Here or There, Espace 1789, Saint Ouen (2009) and Ten Years of the Arcimboldo Prize 1999 – 2008, The Musuem of Montparnasse, Paris (2009). Nicolas Moulin is represented by Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris.

Moulin’s residency at The University of Sheffield has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust with the support of the Humanities Research Institute.

For more information on the residency, please go to beton-brut.blogspot.com

RELATED EVENTS:

Talk by Nicolas Moulin
Saturday 13 June, 12 noon
FREE - BOOKING ESSENTIAL
Book places via events@sitegallery.org or call 0114 281 2077

Nicolas Moulin will be giving a talk about his work in the gallery.

Workshop
Saturday 13 June, 2 – 5pm
NOW FULLY BOOKED. Further details: info@sitegallery.org, beton-brut.blogspot.com

Throughout his residency, Nicolas Moulin has been involved in a series of public workshops to explore the intersections between the visual arts, urban and public spaces. Speakers have included architects, town planners, researchers and artists, investigating the ways in which art provides not only a means of documenting the changing city, but also ways in which the visual arts can usefully dialogue with other disciplines, helping to shape and influence the future development of the city space; the ways in which cities can be designed, lived and practised.

Chris Petit Talk and Screening
Saturday 11 July, 2pm
FREE - BOOKING ESSENTIAL
Book places via events@sitegallery.org or call 0114 281 2077

To complement the work of Moulin, Chris Petit, film-maker and critic, will be giving a talk in the gallery followed by a screening of his seminal film, Radio On at the Showroom Cinema.

Film Screening: AXONOBUILD
AXONOBUILD is a self-selection videotheque to be viewed in the gallery's resource area.

Curated by Esther Johnson, AXONOBUILD is a selection of film and video depicting human interaction with constructed environments. Included is a portrait of the infamous Trellick Tower designed by Ernö Goldfinger; a look at an expatriate Indian community in Brickfield, Malaysia, and the journey of a dissatisfied young girl in her surburban neighbourhood. Artists include Bernd Behr, Pia Borg, Erik Bostedt, Pablo Casacuberta, Chris Chong, Esther Johnson, Mike Mills, Emily Richardson, Tal Rosner and Gabrielle Russell.

Esther Johnson is an artist & filmmaker: www.blanchepictures.com